I have used Ubuntu since the days of Dapper Drake. Now I use Jaunty Ubuntu 9.04. Recently I got curious and decided to try out some other distros. So there I was browsing through Distrowatch. I decided to try out openSUSE, Mandriva and Fedora.
What I want to know is I tried all these out. None can compare to the stability and usability of Ubuntu. The best of the lot if I have to say is Fedora.
So once again I’m back using Ubuntu. The others were just to quirky. But they have there following right? So it must be usable to some. Why am I stuck on Ubuntu.
I’m not the only one after some research I find other’s who are unable to pull away from Ubuntu. I mean it’s like a drug or something, you simply cannot give it up. My reasons for wanting to move on is I think it’s about time.
Without trying to sound trite; use whatever works best for you.
Being stuck on a distro could be seen as annoying, but then so could chronic distro hopping.
Basically, Linux is Linux. Some distros are better at some things, and some work better with different hardware. If you find a distro that you enjoy using, with a community you feel comfortable in, then what’s the problem?
[and if you can’t get rid of the itch… do what I do. Have another partition (or a few) and when you feel like trying something new, go for it! I learn something new about the Linux tree every time I poke around on another branch…]
Also - if you like Ubuntu, but want something a bit more powerful, try Debian. It’s basically the same, but less rigid, and the testing version is a rolling release (or at least can be used as one), presenting its own challenges.
I used Ubuntu from version 5.04 until 8.04 and was very happy with it until two sad events -
A string of bad “updates” that started around 7.10 and seemed to be getting worse which caused total system mess-ups each time I updated.
The forum became overwhelmingly fascist in their enforcement of political correctness over help and support. With clueless rude kids in charge, instead of level headed responsible people.
I switched to openSUSE 10.3 and was amazed at how stable it was in comparison. I had used Ubuntu on 5 of my computers including using it as a router/web server/file server/mail server, so not just simple desktop stuff!
It took a few months to get used to doing things differently, but I now know more, and can tackle seemingly harder problems with openSUSE, than I could with Ubuntu.
I have one word to describe openSUSE - Professionalism! However I will concede that Kubuntu 9.04 is a very well put together distro, and is the best non-suse distro I’ve seen so far.
I recently decided to give a KDE desktop with openSUSE a go, and made the switch from GNOME with Fedora 11. Mainly because it was a bit too ‘cutting edge’ for my ThinkPad R51 and a number of times my system borked after upgrades.
Am quite pleased with openSUSE and KDE but am finding ‘zypper’ and how the ‘repositories’ are set up, a steep learning curve. As of today, give me ‘YUM’ any day.
However, plodding on and waiting for the next stable openSUSE KDE release mid November, and hope that I can find my way around a bit better by then.
It depends on what you’re trying to do. If all you want is a desktop that’s painlessly easy to use, Ubuntu seems to be a good choice. But on the other side of the aisle, I had to install Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on one of our servers and have thus far been completely underwhelmed. In fact, I’m tempted to call it a “boat anchor,” but that would probably be unfair. Some of this is just what one gets used to: for example, just this past week, I was looking for a way to change the runlevel on this Ubuntu server … only to discover that Ubuntu doesn’t do it that way. To disable GUI login, you basically delete the “gdm” or “kdm” startup links in the /etc/init.d directory!
To my way of thinking, that’s kind of clunky. Ubuntu’s propensity for using the “sudo” command, rather than having you log in as root when you’re doing major changes, is another big difference for me. I understand their reasoning, and I’m not going to say it’s wrong, per se. But my choice is for “su,” followed by the commands that I want, then “exit” to become a normal user again. Personal preference.
(One reason I prefer this is because, under their approach, even directories such as “/root” can be viewed. That’s a security risk, in my book. But admittedly, there are other views of this and I accept that.)
Bottom line: it’s a matter of choice. Those choices will be determined by what’s important to you. In my job, I need to be able to go in with SSH to administer these servers. Yast (“Yet Another Setup Tool”) is by far the best I’ve ever seen for that, and it’s an Opensuse exclusive.
To each his/her own. If you’re happy with Ubuntu, well … I’m very happy for you. You’re another Linux user, and that’s what counts the most.
I too like Ubuntu as for the most part its pretty usable, granted I do like openSUSE too but being more of a Gnome fan right now Ubuntu is my distro of choice.
As mentioned by Confuseling above, it all comes to your choice and taste with the different hardware. I used Ubuntu(started with Ubuntu). Then jump to openSUSE, because i find it more stable than Ubuntu. And till now i am using openSUSE. I had installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my office PC, i want to change it but as we know there is not much time to change things in office.
Even sometime openSUSE didn’t detect wifi on my old PC, but i follow the hard way to do it, and that’s why its said:
“Have a lot of fun”.
So the conclusion is use any one which suits you better. All are Linux flavors.
I can’t go back to Ubuntu on my personal laptop, because i am in love with openSUSE and KDE.
Other than that, i like zypper more than apt. YaST more than Synaptic.
It works more flawless for me than Ubuntu.
And yeh, you can use VB to install any other distro. How many…upto you.
Except when it auto closes after installing a app, I dislike having to restart YAST each time for a new app that I forget when installing a mass amount of packages.
YAST should have the option to choose between having auto close and closing at the users leisure.
This issue has been solved long time ago…Start Yast - System - sysconfig editor, search for “action” and you will be able to change ‘pkgmgr_action_on_exit’. The option ‘summary’ gives the opportunity to review changes made and …return to package manager. Using that for over a year now.
So it’s not even a choice anymore, it’s configurable !!! In 11.0 as well.
Err no, that advice didn’t work on my openSUSE 11.1 (default install). Using the “Search” button produces nothing, and manually browsing I found nothing. I would have expected sysconfig Editor>System>Yast2 might contain it, but no? :\
Oh that’s funny. I just switched from Ubuntu to OpenSUSE.
After I got sick and tired of being sick and tired of
Windows I decided to find a Linux version and delete my
Windows XP-version.
So half year ago I found Ubuntu 8.x and I installed it.
It felt great to finally say goodbye to Windows.
But after several errors and slow multitasking with Ubuntu
I looked for another Linux distro. Last week I found OpenSuse.
So far OpenSuse looks good to me and more stable than Ubuntu.
The multitasking goes again as I was used to with Windows.
I still have to get used to a lot of programs, like YaST.
I would like to say to OpenSuse thank you for this Linux version.
Because a silly thought crossed my mind of going back to
Windows if I did not find a good Linux-version.
God forbid lol!
I’ve been using the Ubuntu 9.10 Alphas for a while now, and I haven’t had much problems with it. Ubuntu is a good distro and all, but I’ve been feeling like I need more openSUSE so I think I’ll install it when I get home.
Greetings from Guelph. Since I started using Linux in 2006 I have used OpenSuse since 10.1. I have done my share of distro-hopping but have always returned to Suse. To me it is about stability, the professional look of Suse, and these friendly and knowledgeable forums.
And I agree with another thread in this forum section that the time you spend distro-hopping ( downloading, burning, installing, updating, configuring ) can be better spent delving more deeply into Linux in one distro. For my desktop and EEE PC, it is OpenSuse, currently 11.1.
Cheers!
Yup, it is under Yast -> System -> sysconfig Editor -> System -> Yast2 -> PKGMGR_ACTION_AT_EXIT
Has three options:
Close
Restart
Summary
Set the default behavior of the package manager when package installation has finished.
Possible actions are:
close - just finish the package manager
restart - go back to the package manager, install/remove more packages
summary - display an installation summary dialog, there user can decide whether to finish or restart
The summary dialog is always displayed when an installation error has occured.
What it essentially looks like, is while the ability of choosing what the YaST installer does on exit is there, for whatever obscure reason it wasn’t added to the /etc/sysconf editor. The user who posted the how-to above compiled a custom version of the editor that includes the option; in 11.2, the option is there by default (thank the gods). This is the one annoying thing I have to do anytime I do a reinstall of 11.1 (thankfully I don’t have to do that often ), but after its done it is easy to forget what you had to do for something so simple.
), but after its done it is easy to forget what you had to do for something so simple.